TSA dog breeding facility to close

Two 16-week-old Labrador puppies play Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at the TSA Puppy Program facilities at Lackland Air Force Base.

Two 16-week-old Labrador puppies play Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at the TSA Puppy Program facilities at Lackland Air Force Base.

Photo By WILLIAM LUTHER/William Luther/wluther@express-news.net

Two 16-week-old Labrador puppies play Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at the TSA Puppy Program facilities at Lackland Air Force Base.

Photo By WILLIAM LUTHER/William Luther/wluther@express-news.net

Two 16-week-old Labrador puppies play Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at the TSA Puppy Program facilities at Lackland Air Force Base.

Photo By HELEN L. MONTOYA/San Antonio Express-News

This special harness patch identifies a dog as one being trained at the TSA facility at Lackland. When the TSA center closes, dogs still will be trained at Lackland, but they will be bred by other programs.

Photo By William Luther/wluther@express-news.net

A 9-week-old Labrador puppy is seen Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at the TSA Puppy Program facilities at Lackland Air Force Base.

Photo By WILLIAM LUTHER/William Luther/wluther@express-news.net

Eegan, a 5-month-old Labrador/Vizsla mix, looks for his favorite pink toy as he plays in the backyard of the home he is staying at while being fostered before he can start training as a TSA explosive detection dog.

Photo By WILLIAM LUTHER/William Luther/wluther@express-news.net

Eagan, a five-month-old Labrador/Vizsla puppy runs with his favorite toy Tuesday morning July 12, 2011 in the backyard of the Boerne home with a puppy is being fostered as part of the TSA Puppy Program.

But plans to shut down operations at TSA's Canine Breeding and Development Center at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland are drawing fire from opponents who say the move will wipe out progress the center has made in selectively breeding high-performing dogs with reduced risks of hip dysplasia and other health problems that can shorten a dog's service life.

It also will result in the loss of more than a dozen local jobs and university research funding in Texas, said Jim Boelens, a retired Army colonel and one of about 150 volunteer “puppy walkers” who have provided foster homes to young dogs before they train for security work at airports and transportation facilities. Since January 2002, when it began in the wake of 9/11, the program has bred more than 500 puppies.

“I'm very concerned that TSA will throw away 10 years of selective breeding for detection dogs,” Boelens said.

An official of the Federal Air Marshal Service said the administration is phasing out the breeding program at Lackland, and will purchase dogs through “existing contracts” and “multiple sources,” including the Department of Defense. The Defense Department also breeds dogs at Lackland — which has the world's largest training facility for working dogs and handlers — for explosives detection and police patrols.

“This change will be executed in favor of a canine procurement and deployment approach that best manages taxpayer dollars,” Kimberley Thompson, assistant supervisory air marshal in charge in Washington, D.C., said in a statement Friday. The center stopped breeding dogs in April, and “will cease to operate in its current form” in early 2013, she said.

TSA dogs purchased from other sources will continue to train at Lackland, Thompson said.

Boelens said he's asked members of Congress to direct TSA to delay the closure until a full study of the issue, including cost-benefit comparisons, can be done. He believes the TSA is mistakenly targeting the dog-breeding program after being criticized by federal authorities as inefficient in other areas. Other agencies such as the Texas Department of Public Safety and U.S. Border Patrol also benefit from getting genetically superior dogs from the breeding program, Boelens said.

“It is a program that is developing and improving greatly,” he said. “It provides security to the traveling public.”

Boelens said he has statements from geneticists showing that the center has produced three generations of explosives-detection Labrador retrievers and Labrador-vizsla mixes, resulting in higher certification rates among the selectively bred dogs, compared with purchased canines. The University of Texas has had a contract to do behavioral studies to help improve development of the working dogs.

If the center closes, the foster family program no longer will be needed.